by Stacy Finz
She remembered her earlier conversation with Brady. Lucky is with Raylene. He’s loved her forever.
Maybe, but I’m not feeling it.
It was messed up all right, as in messing with her head.
Chapter 16
“Is she getting back with him?” Tawny asked.
“I dunno.”
“I’m sorry, Lucky. I know how you feel about her.”
He didn’t want to talk about Raylene with Tawny. There were other things he wanted to do with her instead. Lately his head had been so full of them that he’d been walking around half aroused much of his days. It was getting damned uncomfortable.
“You have dinner yet?” he asked her.
“No.” She looked around her kitchen. A half a loaf of bread—it looked homemade—sat in a basket on the counter. “Sometimes I wish this town had pizza delivery.”
“Or Chinese.” He laughed. “I’ll call in an order at the Ponderosa and pick it up. Something good, like steak.”
“Mm. That sounds amazing.” He liked the way her face went all orgasmic when she said mm.
He should’ve been grieving Raylene; instead, he felt like he had a clear conscience.
After phoning in an order for a couple of rib eyes with the works and charging it on his credit card, he found Tawny checking in on Katie again. “Mariah said she’d swing by with our food. It’s on her way home. Katie okay?”
“Sound asleep and no fever.”
He touched Tawny’s back. “We should hear something soon.”
“I hope so. I want her to be better . . . to live a normal life.” Lucky heard everything Tawny wasn’t saying and felt his chest clutch.
“As soon as this bullshit’s over at the ranch, I plan on talking to Colin about building my house,” he said, and she gave him a half smile. “Come sit on the couch. It’s been a long day.”
She followed him and they sat close enough so that their legs were touching. He toyed with the idea of kissing her, but the doorbell rang. A little too fast for the food, Lucky thought. On his feet, he pulled away the lace panel at the window and peered onto the porch.
“Jeez.”
“Who is it?” Tawny asked, going to the door.
“Donna Thurston.” Was being alone with Tawny for an hour or two too much to ask? It seemed like every time he was here, a visitor showed up.
“Be nice,” she said, and opened the door. “Hi, Donna.” Tawny leaned over and kissed the woman on the cheek.
In her typical pushy way, Donna came in uninvited, took one look at Lucky, and said, “You sure brought the excitement to town, didn’t you?”
“Me?” he replied. “I’m not the one shooting people.”
“Talk is all over town that Ray Rosser is home. Apparently the man bought his way out of this one too.”
Lucky would give it to Donna. She was no one’s fool. The Rossers might be Nugget royalty, but she saw right through the old man.
“They don’t think he’s a flight risk. Pfft,” she continued, gazing at Lucky like he had answers. All he knew was that Rosser was claiming self-defense and hadn’t been charged with a crime—yet.
“Do I look like the law to you, Donna?”
“You look like something, Lucky Rodriguez. But definitely not the law.” She pulled him by his collar and gave him a kiss on the lips. “When did you become such a smart mouth?”
He flashed a neon grin, the same one he saved for an arena full of cheering people when he’d made it to the buzzer with a ninety-point ride.
Donna turned to Tawny. “How’s Katie?”
“Much better, thank you.” Tawny offered Donna a drink. A seat.
“I just came to drop this off for our girl while she’s bedridden,” Donna said, handing Tawny a bag of children’s books and DVDs. Lucky silently chanted hallelujah. She’d be leaving soon.
“That’s incredibly sweet of you,” Tawny said. “I know Katie will enjoy these.”
“By the way,” Donna said, “I saw those boots you gave Cecilia. She’s so proud of them. You done good, girl.”
Although Donna had promised that she was just dropping Katie’s stuff off, she managed to stay, talking their ears off, until Mariah appeared in the open doorway, holding a couple of plastic sacks.
“Looks like a party.” Mariah handed the bags to Lucky.
“I was just leaving,” Donna said, and sniffed the food. “Smells good.”
“I put some chicken noodle soup in there for Katie.”
“Thanks, Mariah. I appreciate you dropping it off,” Lucky said.
“My pleasure. Give Katie a kiss for me.”
Donna followed Mariah out. Good, let her jaw someone else to death, Lucky thought as he shut the door.
“Let’s eat before it gets cold,” he told Tawny.
She quickly stashed the soup in the fridge, set the table, and searched through a cabinet until she came up with a bottle of red wine. “A client gave this to me. It’s supposed to be good.”
“You don’t have beer?”
“Sorry.”
“Wine it is then.” Lucky watched her open the bottle and pour it into two goblets. “What kind of client?”
“He’s another winemaker from the Napa Valley. He wanted boots with his logo and brought me the wine as a gift. Nice, right?”
Lucky wondered if the winemaker was hoping for a gift in return. “You gave my mom a pair of boots?” When Donna had mentioned it, Lucky was surprised—not that Tawny wasn’t generous, because she was, but because he hadn’t realized that she and his mother were that friendly.
“She came by the studio the other day and I just happened to have a pair in her size. I’d made ’em for a trunk show I did in Glory Junction last year.”
“What’s a trunk show?”
“A couple of Western-wear designers were showing their merchandise, and I held a special sales event at some rich woman’s vacation house. A bunch of her friends came and I sold a lot of boots.”
“You could’ve eventually sold the pair you gave my mom, right?”
“I could’ve, but I wanted Cecilia to have them . . . from Katie, her granddaughter.”
“That was nice of you, Tawny.”
“It’s no big deal.”
Of course it was. Lucky knew Tawny needed the money. With Katie’s various medical emergencies, she barely had time to work.
“Did Harlee take that picture of you the other night?” Lucky asked, and when Tawny seemed stumped, he said, “The one for your website.”
“Wow . . . you remembered. As a matter of fact, she did. I already uploaded it, along with a few new boot pictures to the gallery.”
He’d never looked at her website. People who worked for Lucky did his. “Does it get you a lot of clients?”
“It’s hard to say. Most of my business is word-of-mouth, but they probably go to my website to check out me and my work. It’s pretty visual.”
Lucky bet that a lot of men liked what they saw.
The steak tasted good. McCreedy beef. Clay had an exclusive deal with the Ponderosa, which probably pissed Rosser off. He watched Tawny take dainty bites of hers.
“Good?” He cocked his head at her meal.
“Delicious. I can’t remember the last time I had steak.” That would change now that he was around.
When they finished eating, Tawny cleared their plates and loaded them into the dishwasher. “Want coffee?” she asked.
“Sure.” Truth was he wanted an excuse to hang out.
While she prepared the coffeemaker, he got up and moved behind her.
“I have store-bought cookies for dessert if you’re interest—”
Before she could say more, he spun her around and boxed her in against the counter. “This is what I’m interested in.” Then he laid his lips on her mouth and kissed her.
Slow at first. But when she kissed him back, he moved over her with the urgency of a man who had been dreaming about this for weeks. Raiding her mouth with his tongue. She tasted so good, like red wine an
d heaven. And the way she clung to him made him so hard he feared he’d burst the seams in his fly. So he pressed into her more, hoping for sweet relief. His hands inched under her sweater, finding soft skin.
She pulled at his shirt, untucking it from his waist, and laid her hands against his bare abs, making him hiss in a breath. Never once did she stop kissing him. He reached higher until he found her breasts and fondled them through the thin lace of her bra. Flesh. He wanted the real deal, so he searched for the clasp, sprang those perfect globes free, and molded them with his hands. They were like peaches, and he desperately wanted a taste. Pushing up her sweater, he sucked her nipples and heard her let out a moan of pure pleasure. She brought his head back up and started kissing him again.
“Tawny,” he said against her mouth, pressing deeper against her groin. “Let’s take this into the bedroom.”
She pulled away from him and grabbed the counter with her hands to find support. Lucky knew how she felt. Those kisses . . . her body thrumming underneath his hands . . . had made him unsteady on his feet.
“We can’t do this.” She tried to find her breath and unconsciously traced her puffy lips.
“Why not?” Seemed like they were doing it just fine a few seconds ago.
She glared at him. “Let’s start with the fact that our daughter is in the next room and end with the fact that you’re in a relationship.”
He couldn’t dispute the part about Katie being in the next room. Being a good influence on a nine-year-old was still pretty new to him. He was used to having sex when and wherever he wanted. For the sake of his daughter, that obviously would have to change.
“I’m no longer in a relationship,” he argued.
For a split second he saw something—maybe hope—flicker in her eyes. But it came and went so fast he couldn’t tell for sure.
“You’re angry with Raylene because Butch is here. You’ll get over it.” Her meaning was clear: No matter how bad Raylene treats you, you always come back for more. “I won’t be your get-even sex again.”
He recoiled. “What the hell are you talking about? That’s not what this is.”
“Then what exactly is it?”
How could he explain it when he didn’t understand it himself? “I’m attracted to you . . . I want you.”
“Here’s a little news flash from the real world. You don’t always get what you want.”
Why all the hostility when a few minutes earlier she’d been dry humping him with wild abandon? But he still wanted her. More now than ever before. And not because she was a challenge. He got plenty of that every time he climbed on top of a pissed-off bull, which he did regularly. He just couldn’t remember a make-out session getting him as hot and bothered as it had with Tawny.
Holy freaking hell, had it been good.
“Here’s a big news flash for you,” he said. “I always get what I want.”
He forgot about the coffee and went home to check on his stock.
“Maybe next time, you wear the boots.” Jake lay in bed holding Cecilia in a haze of post-coital bliss. The woman knew how to float his boat.
She laughed. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
“You’re beautiful.” But her in the boots, naked, would be so sexy it might just give him a stroke. Well worth it. “Let’s move in together, Cecilia.”
She flipped on her side to look at him. “You’d give up your cabin?”
“I’d keep it for the girls,” he said. “But I know how much this house means to you.”
“Father Thomas wouldn’t like it.”
For self-preservation he didn’t point out that her priest wouldn’t like the fact that they were getting it on like bunnies, either. Still, it hadn’t stopped them. “What are you saying, you want to get married?”
“I didn’t say that.” She rested her head on his chest. “I’m saying I like the arrangement the way it is.”
“I want more, Cecilia. I want to sleep with you every night and wake up to the same sunrise with you every morning. I want us to be a team.”
“And what’s to say that as soon as you have that, you won’t want it anymore?” she asked.
Because he’d gotten it wrong so many goddamned times that he knew when it was finally right. “I know,” he said. “Now all I have to do is convince you.”
His cell rang and he reached over to the nightstand to get it. Rhys. “What’ve you got?”
“It appears that we’re back in business,” Rhys said.
“Ray’s intel must’ve been good, then?” Evidently the cattle rancher kept some real lowlifes on his payroll.
“Looks like. I know it’s Saturday, but what are you doing this afternoon?”
Jake brushed a strand of Cecilia’s hair out of her face. “I guess I’m working.”
“I’ll bring lunch from my wife’s personal chef.”
“Brady.” Jake laughed. “Sounds like he’s working out well for the inn.”
“Are you kidding? He’s working out great for the whole Shepard family. Every night he sends Maddy home with dinner. I effing love the guy.”
“All right. I’ll see you around noon,” Jake said and hung up.
“You have to go into the office?” Cecilia asked, and Jake suppressed a grin. The office. Like he was an insurance adjuster.
More than likely he and Rhys would drive up the mountain from Lucky’s ranch and do surveillance from inside an abandoned Airstream trailer that they’d scoped out before the shooting, which smelled like rotting rodents.
“Yeah, but we have some time.”
He rolled her under him and entered her slowly. She arched up, giving him better access to her breasts. Jake didn’t think he’d ever get enough of this woman. But unlike their first time this morning, his strokes were leisurely and his loving thorough. Gradually, he brought her to the peak and joined her in catapulting off the edge. They lay there for a while, catching their breath. She smiled up at him, looking like a satisfied cat, then rolled out from under him.
Jake kissed her. “I want us to do that dinner thing we talked about. Your family and mine.”
“When?” She traced the hairs on his chest with her finger.
“Sometime before Thanksgiving, if I can swing it. The homicide is keeping us pretty busy, though.”
“I thought you closed the case. Ray confessed.”
“Where’d you hear that?” He propped himself up on one elbow.
“It’s all over town. What? It’s not true?”
“You know I can’t talk about the case, Cecilia.”
“Is that the reason you’re going in today?”
“Yep.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He playfully slapped her on the bottom. “I’m hitting the shower. Care to join me?”
After they got dressed, Cecilia made him breakfast. Eggs with chorizo, potatoes, and biscuits. Since he’d met her, he’d put on five pounds.
“I’m worried about Lucky’s business,” she said, refilling his coffee cup. “He was supposed to open in summer. And now with this shooting on his property . . . Ay Dios mio.”
“Sweetheart, it was over cattle rustling,” Jake said. “I’m no marketing genius, but it seems to me that it’ll add to the place’s mystique.”
“Or Ray Rosser is trying to ruin Lucky. I wouldn’t put it past the miserable man.”
“Lucky will be fine,” he said. “No word about Katie, huh?”
“Not yet.” She sighed. “I thought I’d go over to Tawny’s today and babysit so she can get some work done.”
“What’s Lucky doing?” Jake asked, trying to sound casual. He wanted him away from the ranch today in case things went down. Not likely to happen, though. Since the cattle thefts, Lucky had been extra vigilant about watching his place.
“I have no idea,” Cecilia said. “Probably with Raylene.”
From what Jake had heard, Raylene’s ex-husband was in town. Who knew how that would play out? The whole Rosser family was a train wreck as far as Jake was concerned. And Ray de
finitely had it out for Lucky. He’d desperately tried to implicate Lucky in the drug case, saying Cecilia’s son used the cowboy camp as a front to sell meth. And Jake got the impression Ray wasn’t done yet. Something told him Ray would eventually get around to hanging the shooting on Lucky, too.
There was not one stitch of evidence to corroborate Lucky’s involvement in either. Still, they couldn’t completely rule him out. Not until they had a better handle on both cases. And Jake didn’t want any appearance of impropriety since he was dating Lucky’s mother. Any other department would’ve pulled his ass off the case. Too short on manpower, Nugget PD couldn’t afford to cut Jake loose, especially since he happened to be the most seasoned cop on the force.
That’s why he wanted Lucky as far away from this mess as possible.
By the time Jake and Rhys made it to the Airstream, the temperature had dropped a good ten degrees. Jake wished he’d brought something warmer than his lightweight camo jacket. Rhys pulled two pairs of binoculars from his truck and handed a set to Jake.
“These Steiners?”
“Yep. Got ’em a couple of nights ago, compliments of the Nugget City Council,” Rhys said. “You’re welcome.”
Jake examined them. Built to military specs, the binoculars were real lightweight. “Nice.”
Besides being a good cop, Rhys could get money from a beggar. When he first became chief, he’d gotten federal grants to buy all-wheel-drive SUVs for the department and had managed to talk the city into ponying up enough cash to trick them out with high-tech computer systems.
Jake gazed down and surveyed Lucky’s property. From this vantage point they could see all the way to Nevada, but the knoll was hidden enough by trees and terrain that no one could see them. He focused the binos on the top of Lucky’s single-wide and could make out the leaves that had fallen on the roof. “Damn, these are real good. Excellent magnification.”
Rhys played with his for a few minutes, getting the lay of the land. “Looks like the crew is working on the southern part of the property. More corrals, if I’m not mistaken. How much stock does Lucky have?”
“I don’t know the number, but he says he has more coming in next month. I’m surprised these guys are working on a Saturday.”